I can't believe that ball time has rolled around again. This will be our eleventh year going. How is that possible? I know we've skipped a year or two here and there, but we're usually there through thick and thin. Shelley's mom is the captain this year, so there are suites and open bars and caterers and we get to sit at the best table and Shelley and her dad are performing together and it's just going to be freaking marvelous. I still have no idea what I'm doing about my boobs, but lots of readers wrote in with tape suggestions, so I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. It promises to be a good and crazy time as always.

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Sideways was excellent. I think my expections weren't very high because basically I thought it was just going to be about how all men are low-down dirty dogs. But that wasn't really what it was about at all. It was funny. Like, laugh out loud throughout funny. And the scenery from the wine country brought back a lot of memories of the summer we went there. Even though I almost committed fratricide every single day because that was at the height of my older brother's and my sheer hatred of each other, that was kind of a fabulous vacation. And all of the wine talk reminded me so much of Shelley's parents that I could not help but giggle and think about the time her dad encouraged me to sniff a giant goblet of something and proclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world that it was a "gamey" wine. Paul Giamatti is pretty much an awesome actor (he makes the best sad face I've ever seen), and once I got past seeing his friend as Lowell Mather, I enjoyed the film. I sincerely almost wet my pants when Giamatti yelled, "No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!"

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To say that the last couple of days were pretty much magnificent would not even begin to capture it. It is amazing to be surprised by life. Words diminish.

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Joan of Arcadia was so good last week that I really almost lost my mind while watching it. And watching it again. And again. And again. Incorporate some musical theater into a favorite show of mine and color me tickled. The zombie choreography! Friedman dancing! I loved Johnny Broadway / Johnny Godway so much. Whoever cast him is a genius. I watched his scenes over and over and even watched scenes where he was just doing some weird dance or directing motions in the background. Joan's song was lovely. The crashing sets were hilarious. The scene after the show with Joan and Adam ... "I want that for you. Don't you want that for me?" Perfection. I didn't really care much about the lawsuit subplot, but the whole musical shabang was so enjoyable and it was directed so well down to every bit part and every little detail that I think I've just declared this my new favorite episode of this show that I love so damn much.

Nothing of value comes without a little struggle. Some of the most beautiful flowers in the world only grow after a forest fire. Literally out of the ashes, they blanket the ground with color ... you can't control everything, Joan. Turmoil. Conflict. Chaos. This is part of life. Look at any playground. The screaming. The laughter. The tears. Out of that mayhem comes relationships and love and the simple joy of being surprised by life.